Category Archives: Land gastropods

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This land gastropod is Parmarion martensi. It belongs to family Ariophantidae. Some gastropods from this family has a reduced shell. The shell can be so small in some Ariophantidae species, that they can not retract into it. Such gastropods are called semi-slugs.

I thank my friend Doubravka Požárová, the botanist from Charles University in Prague, who kindly provided the following photos to readers of this blog:

Left side view of Parmarion martensi from eastern Bali. Photo by Doubravka Požárová, CC-BY-4.0.

Photos were taken in the surrounding of Lempuyang Temple (Pura Lempuyang Luhur) in the eastern Bali, Indonesia in 2014. It was crawling on the road. I identified the species according to photos only.

Parmarion martensi can reach body length up to 45 mm. It has caudal horn on its tail, but it is not clearly visible on this photo. This species is very variable in color.

Parmarion martensi is native to Southeast Asia. Unfortunately it is able to spread by human activies. It has established in Fiji, Samoa and Hawaii. It was also recorded in the USA. It can be a pest on agricultural crops, but not serious one. Moreover it can transfer nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis, that can cause human disease. Therefore it is an important species and for example it is quarantine species in the USA.

Vitrina pellucida is a small land snail in the family Vitrinidae. It is widely distributed in the Holarctic and it is very common species.

There is visible mantle appendix (extension of the mantle that slightly cover the shell) and open pneumostome (breathing pore) on the photo:

You can find them in autumn much more easily. They are fully grown up to 10 mm in body length in autumn. Then they will lay eggs and die. The next generation will hatch out from eggs at spring. Therefore you can not usually find adult Vitrina pellucida at (late) spring (depending on country).

I was mushroom hunting in Moravia on October 14, 2017. I found this snail altogether with two juvenile Lehmannia marginata slugs on a Xerocomellus chrysenteron mushroom.

Does the Vitrina pellucida eat mushrooms? I do not know. But what does it eat?

British malacologist John William Taylor (1845-1931) wrote in 1914: “Vitrina pellucida has an almost omnivorous appetite, and is credited with feeding upon Liverwort (Jungermannia platyphylla), mosses, fallen leaves, and decaying vegetable matter. It is also carnivorous, being said by Dr. Baudon to voraciously devour raw mutton, and will also feast upon the bodies of dead or dying worms and animals of its own or other species.”

This can be read (approximately) in human language: Vitrina pellucida eat sometimes deciduous forest litter and dead plants. It is sometimes carnivorous and/or saprophagous. Rarely it also feeds on epilithic and/or epiphytic lichens and on living algae.

Both authors does not mention fungi. Falkner at al. ignored information, that it eats mosses (although mosses have its own column in the dataset and although they cited Taylor in the reference section), but they listed lichens. Among hundreds of references listed at the end on the book only, it impossible to practically detect where informations comes from.

I found this one underside the mushroom in the wood in Moravia, Czech Republic:Although it is thought to be the longest land slug species, it is shrinked like this:It seemed a bit pale and especially the foot was very pale. I have taken it and taken no photo of the foot. It has great color variability, but the mantle is unicolor always and the sole has three color parts always.

I have taken photos of the same specimen 26 days later. It grow up and the three color parts of the foot are visible more clearly:

Macrochlamys amboinensis (von Martens, 1864) is a land snail from the family Ariophantidae. Its synonym is Tanychlamys amboinensis. This south-eastern Asian family has – among other ones – two interesting features: extended mantle called mantle collar and caudal horn on the tail.

I received few live snails named Tanychlamys amboinensis. I do not know the locality. I checked out everything about Tanychlamys amboinensis and found out that it is a synonym of Macrochlamys amboinensis (because recent malacologists use the name Macrochlamys). I can not be sure, that my snails are Macrochlamys amboinensis species surely, because I did not checked out all other Macrochlamys species, but the identification seems to be correct. I checked out all resources what I was able to find and I compiled the following overview of the history of research of this species:

This species was described by German malacologist and zoologist Eduard von Martens under the name Hyalina amboinensis in 1864. The type locality is “Mollukische Inseln der Amboinagruppe: Buru, Amboina und Banda-Nera”. The specific name amboinensis refer to the Ambon Island in Indonesia. It has been also spelled Amboyna, Amboina, and Amboine.

Von Martens did not depicted this new species in 1864, but he did it three years later, in 1867. Drawing of a shell of Macrochlamys amboinensis by von Martens (1867):German malacologist Stefan Clessin classified this species as Hyalina (Polita) amboinensis in 1881.

American malacologist George Wahington Tryon classified this species as Zonites (Hyalinia) amboinensis within the family Zonitidae in 1886. The family Ariophantidae was established two years later, in 1888. Drawing of a shell of Macrochlamys amboinensis by G. W. Tryon (1886):Dutch malacologist Woutera Sophie Suzanna van Benthem Jutting reported this species from the West Java. She firstly thought, that this species belong to the family Zonitidae and later she classified it as Tanychlamys amboinensis within family Helicarionidae in 1952. She reported only specimen in shell width of 12-13 mm. As of shell features and radula depiction I would recommend van Benthem Jutting’s description.

For distinguishing from other species this can help a bit: The last whorl is well-rounded. Apex of Macrochlamys amboinensis is rounded in comparison with other similar species in the genus.

Its distribution include Vietnam, and various islands in Indonesia, for example also Sumatra. It live in forests on limestone mountains in Vietnam. It lives from 700 m a. s. l. to more than 2958 m a. s. l in West Java. According to von Martens, it lives on the ground under moist leaves together with Stenogyra snails (family Subulinidae). Van Benthem Jutting also reported that is lives on the ground.

This snail has a shell width 18 mm and shell height 9 mm.

Left side view:Another left side view:Just another left side view:Three right side views:Two dorsal views:Umbilical view:Foot:

Right side view:There is visible a tentacle like extension of the mantle of the right side of the body on this right side view. It is called a lobe on mantle collar:Another view of the mantle extension shows that this specimen has two lobes; on on the right side and one on the left side. The genus can have from one to four lobes on the mantle collar.Caudal horn on the tip of the tail. The caudal horn is not always clearly visible on Macrochlamys amboinensis, but it can be seen quite good on this photo:Top side view:

Four different views of the Macrochlamys amboinensis on my hand:Macrochlamys amboinensis can be fed by vegetables in captivity. My snails normally consume leaves of lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata).

If you will found out other resources on this species, let me to know. This species seems to be easy to keep in captivity, so hopefully some informations about its life cycle will be available in the future.

This is a deformed shell of a common Roman snail Helix pomatia. It is called scalarid shell. This deformation happens, when the mantle of the snail is damaged during the embryonic development. Therefore such shells are unobvious and rare. It is teratological specimen in general. “Teratological” means, that it has developed abnormally during its ontogeny – during the development of the individual.

I have never seen scalarid shell of Helix pomatia by naked eye before. I have taken this photo of shell in the Waldstein Riding School, Prague. It is a part of Cabinet of curiosities in the exhibition by František Skála.

There is a small display of shells from the family Achatinidae in one of new houses called House of Evolution in the Ostrava ZOO, Czech Republic. All Achatinidae species comes from Africa, but some of them spreaded to other continents by human activities as pests and pets.

There are the following species on display:Archachatina marginata marginata from Cameroon,Limicolaria numidica from Cameroon,Achatina achatina from Ghana,Limicolaria flammea from Ghana,Archachatina marginata candefacta from Cameroon,Achatina balteata infrafusca from Congo,Pseudachatina connectens rollei from Cameroon,Archachatina papyracea adelinae from Cameroon,Archachatina puylaerti from Togo,Archachatina porphyrostoma from Nigeria,Archachatina marginata suturalis from Nigeria.

These are just 11 samples of the diversity of Achatinidae, that contains 176 species and subspecies.References

Ena montana is a species of a common land snail with Central European, Alpine and Carpathian distribution. It belong to the family Enidae. It is similar to Merdigera obscura, but they differ in size. Ena montana reach shell length up to 16 mm, while Merdigera obscura can grown up to 9 mm only.

Left side view of Ena montana crawling on a calcareous rock:

It is the only species of Ena occurring in Central Europe. Other Ena species live in southern Europe.

My specimen comes from Velká Fatra Mountains, Slovakia. I have taken the photo in situ on a calcareous rock in the forest. But they also inhabits humid habitats in forests in lowlands.

It feeds mainly on living algae, sometimes on dead higher plants and rarely also on lichens.

Semilimax semilimax is a semi-slug with central European and Alpine distribution. It lives in moist forests. It is from the family Vitrinidae.

Left side view:Right side view:When I found those gastropods, I though, that I found two different species. Unfortunately all of them are the same species – Semilimax semilimax. I realized that in the lab some time later.

Six semi-slugs, five dark grey, one light grey and all of them are Semilimax semilimax:It is exactly as Welter Schultes wrote: “Animal light to dark grey”. They can vary in color even in one population as it is documented in this my record from central Moravia.

Oxychilus glaber is a species of a herbivorous and carnivorous land snail in the family Oxychilidae. Its distribution is South European and Central European. It live in woods. Its umbilicus is narrow and its spire is high in comparison with other Oxychilus species.

My snail comes from the Czech Republic. It is not common species. It is nearly threatened in the Czech Republic and it is threatened with extinction in Germany.

The photo of this land slug is from the tropical moist forest in northern Madagascar. It was identified according to the photo only. It is either Elisolimax bella or Elisolimax madagascariensis. Genus Elisolimax belong to the family Helicarionidae.

Locality: Madagascar, tropical moist forest, between Joffreville village and the entrance to the Amber Mountain National Park, coordinates: -12.502470, 49.201356, November 15, 2014. Photo by Martin Mandák.

I thank to Martin Mandák from the Czech Republic for taking the photo.